Law catches up to killer

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When 23-year-old Amanda Hunter was shot dead with an SKS assault rifle in West Oakland two years ago, the cops called it murder, saying her boyfriend, convicted felon Jonathan Ho, had killed her on purpose.

Ho, however, was allowed to plead to a gun charge after seemingly proving a bizarre scenario: that Hunter had died accidentally after she threw the gun at him and it spun in the air, discharging and killing the mother of three when the butt of the weapon hit the floor.

Case closed? Not quite.

The couple were at their apartment on Mead Avenue near San Pablo Avenue the evening of July 2, 2008, when they began arguing about the assault rifle. Hunter wanted the gun out of the home and threw it toward Ho, who worked for Horizon Beverage. The gun went off.

Initial evidence from the crime scene and ballistics tests indicated that Ho was telling the truth. In September 2008, Ho, who has a previous conviction for possession of methamphetamine, was sentenced to three years in state prison for the gun charge.

But Oakland homicide investigators ordered up more ballistics tests. Investigators declined to elaborate, but those tests proved showed that the cops’ initial suspicions were correct.

In June, Ho was sentenced to 16 years in state prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.